Web Design & Search Engine Optimization

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising has its place in a small business arsenal of marketing methods, but it needs to be used judiciously and wisely, if at all. One advantage of PPC is that you get quick results and this is the reason it’s usually a small business’s first introduction to online marketing. Quite often it’s the only form of online marketing that is actually understandable after a 10 second explanation whereas with Search Engine Optimization it might take 10 minutes and quite often a person still thinks I’m talking about paying Google to show up in search results.

But here’s the deal. With PPC you can only target one keyword with the same advertising dollar. If you want to target more keywords you have to spend more money. That’s just the way it is.

One Keyword or One Hundred Keywords – It’s All The Same SEO Work

Doing SEO with a blog like WordPress, which allows you to quickly create a post with controllable title and description tag fields (mine are just three inches below as I write this post), and the ability to insert h1, h2, and h3 tags and word emphasis (bold) right in my text, makes targeting my website for several keywords, even hundreds of keywords, a snap. And the best part is I don’t have to pay any more money to target one hundred keywords than I do to target one keyword. I just need to spend five to fifteen minutes writing a blog post geared around each keyword I want to target. The same SEO work that went into optimizing my site for one keyword is the same work that will help me optimize my site for one hundred keywords, or one thousand keywords. It’s all the same site structure and back link work no matter how few or how many keywords I want to target.

Take my own site, for example. As of this day I have done little off-site SEO work for Kirbyworks SEO yet I am on Google page 1 for almost 100 keywords such as “Kennewick SEO,” “Richland Search Engine Optimization,” and “Pasco web design.” I happen to be in the Tri-Cities so have to market to more than one city to get any business but can also target larger markets by simply making another blog post. So far I’ve captured the coveted Google number 1 spot for 33 keywords and keep adding more all the time, just by blogging.

It’s As Simple As Creating Another Blog Post

On November 14 my front page was ranked #77 on Google for “Pasco web design.” Pasco, if you’re not familiar with the Tri-Cities, is just across the Columbia River from Kennewick. I can see it from my house. On November 28 I wrote a blog post titled “Pasco Web Design” and by December 8, just ten days later, I was ranked #3 on Google. I also happen to be the only one on Google page 1 for this keyword that has a mug shot next to his or her result. No matter where I land on Google’s first page I’m going to get more clicks than anyone else, including whomever is in the #1 organic spot or the three companies that will have to pay Google if I click on their listings in the shaded Adwords (Pay-Per-Click) section above that. Adding that picture didn’t cost me a dime and you can’t get that with a PPC ad.

I’m not going to have to pay anybody if someone clicks on my listing as a result of someone in Pasco searching for a web designer. That’s the beauty of SEO. Not only that, but the three companies that are in the paid advertising section at the top won’t be there as soon as they stop paying money to Google or to an ad agency working for them who pays Google. I’ll keep showing up year after year for this and a multitude of other keywords as long as I’m doing a little bit each month to keep my rankings up.

For the search term “Kennewick search engine ranking” (and to date 32 other terms similar to this) I’m ranked Google #1. I show up with my ruggedly handsome mug shot just below the three SEO companies who ironically didn’t get there through doing SEO on their websites. In fact, they could have the worst SEO’d websites in the industry and still show up at the top because all they had to do is be the highest bidders to Google for “Kennewick search engine ranking.” In other words, they could really suck at doing what they are trying to sell to you and you might still find their website.

Go ahead, click on their link. It could cost them a couple bucks but that’s what you pay for when you use PPC to market your business.

At Kirbyworks SEO, on the other hand, we preach what we practice, and provide more cost-effective and long-term return on investment.